Immigration Detention Center Expands in Southern California

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) - Immigration authorities will expand a Southern California detention facility to get more bed space for women with criminal records, immigrants with medical needs, recently arrived asylum seekers and other detainees.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement is getting an additional 640 beds at a privately contracted detention facility some 60 miles northeast of Los Angeles starting in July, raising the total number of beds to 1,940.

The move helps consolidate detention space because beds are expensive and hard to find in cities such as San Francisco, said David Marin, ICE’s deputy field office director for enforcement and removal in Los Angeles. Most detainees at the center have criminal records, officials said.

The expansion of the facility in Adelanto run by GEO Group comes as the number of detained immigrants has dropped nationwide. From October 2014 to March 2015, the average number of immigrants in detention each day totaled 26,734, down 21 percent from the previous fiscal year’s daily average.

Immigrant advocates said the expansion clashes with Obama administration policies aimed at detaining fewer immigrants. They also questioned the quality of medical care at the center, which opened in 2011.

GEO Group officials declined to comment.

ICE, which announced a proposal earlier this week to consider housing transgender immigration detainees by the gender they identify with, plans to move about two dozen transgender detainees from a city-owned facility in Santa Ana to the new women’s section in Adelanto, said Virginia Kice, an agency spokeswoman.

Immigration officials also contract for space at several other area facilities that are run by law enforcement agencies. In Orange County, two jails used for immigration detainees have seen their numbers decline, said Lt. Jeff Hallock, a sheriff’s department spokesman. Those beds were about 70 percent occupied as of last week, he said.

The average daily rate that ICE must pay to house a detainee in Adelanto is $111, compared with $118 at the Orange County Sheriff’s Department facilities and $142 at centers in the San Diego area, according to ICE. The national average is $122 a day.

By: Amy Taxin
Via: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jul/2/immigration-detention-center-expands-in-southern-c/

California Senate approves health care for undocumented immigrants

A proposal to expand health care to Californians in the country illegally cleared the Senate on Tuesday, passing on a 28-11 vote and heading to the Assembly.

Senate Bill 4 would allow undocumented immigrants to purchase health insurance on the state exchange, pending a federal waiver, and enroll eligible children under the age of 19 in Medi-Cal, the state’s insurance program for the poor. A capped number of undocumented adults would also be allowed participate, if additional funding is appropriated in the state budget.

“We are talking about our friends, we are talking about our neighbors and our families who are denied basic health care in the richest state of this union,” said Sen. Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens, the measure’s author. “Ensuring that every child in California grows up healthy and with an opportunity to thrive and succeed is simply the right thing to do.”

Debate got increasingly feisty as it turned into a discussion of stalled immigration reform efforts in Congress. Sen. Isadore Hall, D-Los Angeles, baited his Republican colleagues to support SB 4, calling their “excuses” not to support the measure “tools of the weak and incompetent.”

Republican Sens. Andy Vidak of Hanford and Anthony Cannella of Ceres, who both represent swing agricultural districts, joined Democrats in voting yes on the bill.

The bill aims to expand the scope of the federal Affordable Care Act, which prohibited undocumented immigrants from participating in any of the health insurance exchanges it established. Under SB 4, California would also be required to apply for a federal waiver to allow individuals to buy plans on the exchange regardless of immigration status, though those who are not citizens would not be eligible for assistance to pay for the coverage.

Lara scaled back the bill last week to help it get past the Senate Appropriations Committee, where a similar proposal was held last year.

SB 4 still faces a challenging road in the Assembly, and should it make to Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk, a signature is not guaranteed. Brown has expressed skepticism over the bill because of its high cost, estimated to be as much as $135 million annually.

Via: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article22904433.html#storylink=cpy

Kevin de León joins immigrants to advocate for health care expansion

Health care for undocumented immigrants wasn’t part of Gov. Jerry Brown’s revised budget proposal last week, but that hasn’t slowed the campaign for SB 4. The proposal – a priority of legislative Democrats that currently sits in the Senate Appropriations Committee as lawmakers consider the expected annual cost of between $175 million and $740 million – tops the agenda for the 19th annual Immigrant Day. 

Immigrant rights advocates will be at the Capitol to lobby for SB 4, as well as AB 622, which would prohibit employers from using the federal E-Verify system to check the immigration status of current workers or applicants who have not yet received a job offer; AB 953, to expand limits on racial profiling; and a $20 million budget proposal to assist Californians applying for citizenship or deferred action.

The day will kick off at 9:15 a.m. with an interfaith ceremony on the west steps of the Capitol, followed by a rally at 9:45 a.m. featuring state Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León, Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, D-San Diego, and Assemblyman Luis Alejo, D-Watsonville.

Via: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article21135027.html

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article21135027.html#storylink=cpy

IMMIGRATION: Legality of effort to repeal Prop. 187 is questioned

Some California legislators are poised to repeal Proposition 187, a controversial 20-year-old initiative that was ruled unconstitutional by a federal court and never enforced. But law scholars question whether the elected officials have the legal authority to act on their own.

“The California Constitution says you can’t amend or repeal an approved measure without submitting it to the voters unless there’s a waiver clause,” said Jessica A. Levinson, a Loyola Law School professor who specializes on election law.

Prop. 187, which sought to cut off public education, health care and welfare benefits to undocumented immigrants in California, had no such waiver, said John C. Eastman, a Chapman University Law School professor and founding director of the Claremont Institute’s Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence.

“These guys are acting lawlessly,” Eastman said. “They’ll do it if they think they can get away with it and no one will challenge them.”

California voters approved Prop. 187 – also known as the “Save our State” campaign – in November 1994 with almost 60 percent approval. A federal court ruled most of the provisions unconstitutional, and the measure was not enforced. But some of the language remains embedded in various codes, including education codes.

Sen. Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles, said he learned of its existence in California codes accidentally. He was recently talking to his staff about his personal history and recounting how he “cut my teeth politically against the 187 campaign.” Chief of Staff Dan Reeves decided to look into the proposition and found it had not been removed.

“These code sections are unenforceable. The Legislature has the right and power and authority to maintain the codes with our statutes and that’s we’re doing,” Reeves said.

“Essentially, it’s code cleaning,” he said.

De Leon’s staff consulted with the state’s legislative counsel, Diane Boyer-Vine, whose opinion was that “it’s not necessary to go back to the voters,” Reeves said.

State Sen. Richard Roth, D-Riverside, said unconstitutional laws should not remain on the books.

“The Constitution is the highest law of our nation, and I support any effort to remove any statute or language found unconstitutional,” he said.

Sen. Mike Morrell, a Rancho Cucamonga Republican who represents parts of Riverside and San Bernardino counties, said in a statement that he has not yet decided whether to vote for de Leon’s bill.

“I have not yet had a chance to review the specific language of the bill or the legal questions surrounding it,” he said.

Robin Hvidston, executive director of the anti-illegal-immigration We the People Rising and an Upland resident, urged legislators to keep the law in California codes.

“To me, it’s important because this was the direct voice of the people,” she said. “The people’s voice, the people’s will was overruled by the courts.”

She worried that stripping Prop. 187 language from state codes would set a dangerous precedent and lead to other voter initiatives being gutted.

But Maria Rodriguez, an activist with the Inland Empire Immigrant Youth Coalition, said passage of de Leon’s bill would be another signal by the Legislature that California is “an immigrant-friendly state.”

Immigration reform: CA GOP members not giving up

House Speaker John Boehner slammed the door on comprehensive immigration reform this week, saying House action on the bill already passed by the Senate is “not going to happen.” That's not stopping a pair of California Republicans from lobbying fellow GOP members on the issue.

Speaker Boehner repeated his stance that the House GOP would work on a "common sense, step-by-step" approach to immigration reform. He said he had "no intention of ever going" to a conference committee to reconcile whatever measures the House passes with the 1,300-page Senate bill.

Instead, Boehner said the House GOP would work on " a set of principles" that will help "guide" the GOP as it deals with the issue. He did not mention the piecemeal immigration bills put forth by House Republicans.

That hasn’t discouraged Central Valley GOP members Jeff Denham and David Valadao.

Both Congressmen are in heavily Latino districts. Both are co-sponsors of the Democrats' immigration bill, which is based on the Senate bill that passed the Judiciary Committee and includes the House version of a border security provision. In fact, Denham and Valadao are two of the three GOP members who back HR-15. 

Denham said he has convinced three more Republicans to back HR-15. The challenge, he says, is that health care, the fiscal crisis and a farm bill have taken precedence on Capitol Hill. He says any issue that does not have an exact timeline always gets moved. "Immigration is one of those issues," he said. "That’s one of the things that makes it difficult."

The duo is "whipping" the House floor, talking to members during votes, pushing HR-15. But Valadao said that's a "tough jump" for many members. So the pair is also pushing a letter to Speaker Boehner, urging him to take  up immigration reform. Valadao said he tries not to pressure people on any specific piece of language, urging a debate on the floor and the opportunity to vote. "Fix what they don’t like about each bill as it comes, but go through the legislative process."

On Friday, the head of the campaign arm of the GOP – the National Republican Congressional Committee – said it was his "guess" that the immigration debate would happen “later next year." Next year, of course, is an election year and immigration is one of those hot button issues politicos like to avoid.

Congressman Greg Walden of Oregon, chairman of the NRCC, dismissed the notion that immigration can't be tackled in an election year. He told a breakfast gathering of reporters that most members have already staked out positions on immigration "and what they can and cannot support going into it."

NRCC spokesman Daniel Scarpinato gave a preview of how the debate is likely to play out in one word: "Obamacare." Scarpinato says the Affordable Care Act is a cautionary tale, "kind of a warning signal of what happens when you don't have a lot of transparency, when people haven't read everything that's in the bill." 

Mass Incarceration & Immigrant Detention: Two Sides of the Same Coin

Saturday, June 29, 2013

10:00 am - 1:30 pm

Holman United Methodist Church

3320 West Adams Blvd - Los Angeles

RSVP Required: admin@justicenotjails.org

Senate Immigration Bill Could Reshape California

Already America's most popular immigrant gateway, California could be reshaped again by a comprehensive immigration bill that eight U.S. senators are introducing Tuesday after months of negotiations.

The bill offers an arduous 13-year path to citizenship to most of the 11 million immigrants in the country illegally, but also shifts the legal immigration system to welcome more people based on their work skills, prioritizing the most educated.

And it pumps billions of dollars into securing the U.S.-Mexico border to curtail the flow of illegal immigration.

"Silicon Valley, in terms of tech, comes out pretty good from this proposal," said Bill Ong Hing, a law professor at the University of San Francisco. "If you look at the grand scheme of things, it also definitely benefits undocumented immigrants. They're not going to get deported."

But the "ones who are most hurt," said Hing, are many average immigrants who will lose the chance to sponsor their brothers, sisters and other relatives to join them in the country.

The bipartisan group of senators postponed their announcement of the bill Tuesday in honor of the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings, but a 17-page summary obtained by the Bay Area News Group details how it would work.

In a move away from America's family-focused immigration system, it would create a new "Merit Visa" later this decade that would rank prospective permanent residents, including those now here illegally, using a point system based on their education, employment and length of U.S. residence. About 120,000 of the new visas will be available in the first year of the merit-based program, and up to 250,000 annually if the economy improves.

First, however, the measure aims at clearing an existing backlog of more than 4.5 million immigrants waiting for green cards to move here permanently, most to join relatives who have sponsored them.

And it gives a 10-year "registered provisional immigrant" status to those here illegally, as long as they have lived here since at least Dec. 2011, pay a $500 penalty fee, have not committed serious crimes and meet other requirements. They will able to work and live in the United States for a decade, but not access government benefits, and eventually can seek citizenship if they pay back taxes, learn English and qualify for an existing family or work visa.

A quicker path to citizenship would be offered to young immigrants brought to the country illegally as children and to agricultural workers.

The bill also would expand temporary visa programs for guest workers in both high-wage and low-wage jobs. It would raise the annual cap for 3-year H-1B visas, already heavily used to recruit foreign computer programmers and other Silicon Valley tech workers, from 85,000 to as many as 180,000.

Some engineers critical of the H-1B program for creating unfair competition with U.S. workers were pleased that the bill, while adding visas, bans some companies from gobbling up too many of them.

"It's better than expected," said Saratoga computer consultant Brian Berg, chairman of the Santa Clara Valley chapter of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers. "Even though the program is being expanded, the fact that outsourcers are being partly left out of this process is good news."

By outsourcers, Berg means the companies -- most of them based in India -- that rely on H-1B workers for the majority of their workforce. Companies will be banned from hiring more than 75 percent of their workforce from abroad, and will now have to pay a $10,000 fee for each additional foreign worker they hire if more than half of their workforce is here on temporary visas.

Berg was also pleased by the expansion of green cards -- permanent residency visas -- for high-skilled workers, since those immigrants are not tethered to the companies that sponsor them.

The bill would also add a new W visa for lower-skilled guest workers -- 20,000 in the first year, but the numbers would later expand or contract based on a statistical formula.

The bill would eliminate today's "diversity visa," which is awarded randomly to about 50,000 people each year from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States.

And, after the existing backlog of family visas is cleared, it would end visas for the brothers and sisters of U.S. citizens, as well as married sons and daughters over the age of 30.

"The proposal to get rid of the sibling category, which has been on the books since 1952, that's going to be very disappointing," Hing said. "It's disappointing for regular immigrants. The vast majority of people who immigrate today come on the family categories."

The so-called "Gang of Eight" senators -- four Democrats and four Republicans -- have negotiated the bill in secret for months. They are Republicans Marco Rubio of Florida, John McCain and Jeff Flake of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina; and Democrats Chuck Schumer of New York, Robert Menendez of New Jersey, Michael Bennet of Colorado and Dick Durbin of Illinois.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-San Francisco, while not part of the group, helped broker its agricultural provision after months-long negotiations between the farm industry and unions.

The first hearing on the bill is expected to happen on Friday, followed by another one on Monday.

via Mercury News

California farmers eager for immigration reform

At Chandler Farms, just outside of Selma in the San Joaquin Valley, about three dozen workers are needed each season to pick acres of delicate peaches, plums, nectarines and citrus.

In recent years, however, owners Carol and Bill Chandler have struggled to find laborers as immigration from Mexicohas slowed to a near standstill.

"When the crops are ripe, we need a reliable labor force," she said. "That's what we're worried about going forward."

The Chandlers are among the state's farmers who welcomed a move this week by Congress to make immigration reform a legislative priority this year.

But the promised changes may not be enough to solve their chronic labor problems, which have been exacerbated by deportations, a stronger Mexican economy and, in good times, the lure of construction jobs.

On Monday, a group of Republican and Democratic senators unveiled a blueprint that aims to grant legal status to an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the country.

President Obama also joined the fray Tuesday, urging Congress to move legislation along quickly this year.

Immigration reform has been a rallying cry among farm groups in California and around the country for years.

According to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, roughly half of all hired crop farmworkers are in the country illegally. Of all workers, 7 of 10 are from Mexico, a country that has provided a steady supply of farm laborers to California since the middle of the last century.

With immigration reform back on the table this year, California farm groups are fiercely lobbying to make sure proposed legislation includes provisions for their workers.

There have been false starts in the past, including efforts by former President George W. Bush, who sought to create a guest worker program and overhaul immigration laws during his administration.

But the latest push to tackle the highly politicized issue is "one of the best signs we've seen in a long time," said Ken Barbic, senior director of government affairs for Western Growers in Irvine, a trade group that represents farmers in California and Arizona.

If Congress passes legislation, "the folks who are currently working here with false documents, it takes them out of the shadows," Barbic said.

Barbic added that immigration reform would remove legal liabilities for employers who hire illegal immigrants.

Diego Olagaray, 51, who grows 750 acres of wine grapes in Lodi, just north of Stockton, said that granting legal status to the state's agricultural workers ensures that both farm hands and employers would be able to breathe a little easier.

"Some of these workers go back to Mexico on a regular basis," Olagaray said. When they travel, "they're fearful of something happening to them. With amnesty, it'll make them feel more comfortable. They'll also feel that they're part of society.… And it will make it easier for employers as well."

Olagaray said that if immigration isn't resolved soon, labor shortages will become more pronounced. Last spring, he said he had trouble filling his usual crew to work on his vineyard, and other growers saw ripe crops languish in the fields.

Still, any policy effort may do little to solve the labor shortage for California farmers, said Edward Taylor, a professor of agriculture and resource economics at UC Davis.

Such shortages predate the recession. During boom times, contractors persuaded many workers in the fields to work in construction jobs, according to farmers and Taylor, who recently co-wrote a study that examined the decline in the number of farmworkers from Mexico.

A key finding in Taylor's study was that more immigrants were staying home to work on Mexico's farms. They were taking advantage of a strengthening Mexican economy and a growing middle class that ramped up agricultural production.

Now, American farmers find themselves competing for a dwindling supply of workers.

"Immigration policy stops being a solution if you can't find workers," Taylor said.

Farmers in California have already begun adapting to the drying supply of laborers.

Growers, for instance, have swapped out labor-intensive crops such as tomatoes and peaches for less labor intensive ones such as tree nuts.

Almonds, which were the second-most valuable crop in California in 2011, were ranked No. 11 in 2000. Sales of almonds have skyrocketed from $682,000 to $3.9 billion during that time period, according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture.

Technology is also playing a role. Using robots that shake loose crops from trees, farmers have been able to cut back on labor costs.

Paul Wenger, president of the California Farm Bureau Federation, said farmers are well-aware that their industry is changing.

And although he agrees that a dwindling labor supply will cause problems further down the line, he said Congress should still pass immigration reform that will allow farmers to hire legal farmworkers.

"Within the next two decades, we're going to have a problem. A domestic workforce will not want to work in the fields," he said. "It's going to be a problem. But that still doesn't mean we shouldn't fix the problems that exist today."

via LA Times